A statement from Morris Dees We’ve Lost a Champion.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of legendary civil rights activist Julian Bond, SPLC’s first president. He was 75 years old and died last evening, August 15, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
From his days as the co-founder and communications director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s to his chairmanship of the NAACP in the 21st century, Julian was a visionary and tireless champion for civil and human rights. He served as the SPLC’s president from our founding in 1971 to 1979, and later as a member of its board of directors.
With Julian’s passing, the country has lost one of its most passionate and eloquent voices for the cause of justice. He advocated not just for African Americans, but for every group, indeed every person subject to oppression and discrimination, because he recognized the common humanity in us all.
Julian is survived by his wife, Pamela Horowitz, a former SPLC staff attorney, and his five children.
Not only has the country lost a hero today, we’ve lost a great friend.
Julian Bond was a true class act.
Why his passing fills some of us older folks with sadness is that it’s a reminder of what was never to be. He was the man we envisioned would someday be the first African American President. The optimism of youth. Yet somehow all the right pieces for this right man never fell into place.
1972 — not yet old enough to be the VP nominee and he also hadn’t been in 1968.
Georgia was not then nor now ready for an African American Senator or Governor.
1976 and 1980 – Jimmy Carter. Not legal for both nominees to be from the same state. However, that wasn’t relevant as Bond and Carter were from two different wings of the Democratic Party.
1984 – Mondale went with a different kind of statement.
With the rise of the DLC, there was no place for someone as authentic and elegant as Julian Bond.
Our loss.